Animals and the Shaping of the Early English Atlantic Experience, 1550-1630

Early English seafarers regularly documented the animals they encountered on long distance transatlantic voyages. These interactions have often been overlooked by historians seeking to understand the English experience when entering the emerging Atlantic world. Recent work in the field of Animal History has demonstrated that investigating human-animal interactions can reveal significant insight into the human past, offering explanations for our modern relationship with the natural world. The following study has used this perspective to reinvestigate how the English experienced the Atlantic and imagined their place within it. Predominantly focusing on published accounts written by English voyagers, this research has revealed that animals played a significant part in how seafarers communicated about foreign environments. As animals became part of a distinctly English discourse of discovery, their presence indicated the resource or settlement potential of foreign lands. In addition, descriptions of subduing, conquering or safely navigating the natural world became common methods of illustrating English success in an Atlantic currently dominated by the Spanish. Animals, and the natural world more broadly, were consequently used to justify the future possibility of an expanded English commonwealth. Overall, this research reconsiders how the English approached the Atlantic world and mentally constructed a place for themselves within it. This is significant as it shows how the growing violent and exploitative attitude seafarers developed towards the animal kingdom built a foundation for later English imperial activity.